The Value of MoneyAnderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
General
The Value of Money
Anderson, Benjamin M. (Benjamin McAlester)
Money
"The value of money rises when the same inner values (_innere
Werte_) of commodities are expressed in lower prices; it falls, when
they are expressed in higher prices" (II, 511-12). "Inner value" of
goods is not defined, but I take it that Wieser uses it as meaning
essentially the same thing as the public economic value already
described--an absolute value. (_Cf._ the usage of Menger and von Mises,
_infra_, in this chapter, with respect to the terms, "inner" and "outer"
value.) The definition is not strictly circular, perhaps, but at least
it is pretty empty. Nothing appears to give the value of money, as
distinct from its purchasing power, an independent standing. The reason
for this will later appear. It should be noted, however, that the
definition is not in terms of prices or purchasing power. Prices might
remain unchanged, in Wieser's scheme, and yet the value of money sink,
if the inner values of goods should sink.
The value of money, thus defined, is to be explained by marginal
utility. But money has no marginal utility of its own, it has no
subjective use-value, but only a subjective exchange value,--derived
from the use-value (marginal utility) of the commodity purchased with
the marginal dollar (II, 507-8). This subjective-exchange value of money
is the personal value of money, as distinguished from its public
economic value, and is the cause of the public economic value. The
personal value of money changes (1) with the volume of one's personal
income, (2) with the intensity of one's need for money, and (3) with
market prices. The personal value of money is directly influenced and
measured only in exchanges for consumption goods. Expenditures of other
kinds affect it only indirectly by leaving less for consumption
expenditures. The laborer always reckons with the personal value of
money, but not the business man, in his business calculations. As in the
case of goods, we pass from personal to public economic value (II, 509).
The personal value of money depends on the relation between an
individual's money income, and his real income, in terms of goods. The
public economic value of money depends on the money income of the
community as a whole, and its real income. (II, 516-18). Money income
grows faster than real income, through the extension of the money
economy. Money income is not, like real income, dependent on quantity.
The mere extension of the money economy increases the volume of money
income, lowers the personal value of money, lowers its public economic
value, and raises prices. Witness the effect on a rural community of
bringing it into the great market, where all costs are reckoned in money
and rising costs compel rising prices. Hence, there is a tendency for
the public economic value of money to sink, and this has been the
historical fact (I, II, 519-520.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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